Statistical Physics of Complex Fluids

Abstract

The field of complex fluids is a rapidly developing, highlyinterdisciplinary field that brings together people from aplethora of backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, chemicalengineering, materials science, applied mathematics, physics,chemistry and biology. In this melting pot of science, thetraditional boundaries of various scientific disciplines have beenset aside. It is this very property of the field that hasguaranteed its richness and prosperity since the final decade ofthe 20th century and into the 21st.The C3 Commission of the International Union of Pure and AppliedPhysics (IUPAP), which is the commission for statistical physicsthat organizes the international STATPHYS conferences, encouragesvarious, more focused, satellite meetings to complement the mainevent. For the STATPHYS22 conference in Bangalore (July 2004),Iran was recognized by the STATPHYS22 organizers as suitable tohost such a satellite meeting and the Institute forAdvanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) was chosen to be thesite of this meeting. It was decided to organize a meeting in thefield of complex fluids, which is a fairly developed field inIran. This international meeting, and an accompanying summerschool, were intended to boost international connections for both theresearch groups working in Iran, and several other groups workingin the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.The meeting, entitled `Statistical Physics of Complex Fluids'was held at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences(IASBS) in Zanjan, Iran, from 27 June to 1 July 2004. The maintopics discussed at the meeting included: biologicalstatistical physics, wetting and microfluidics, transportin complex media, soft and granular matter, and rheologyof complex fluids. At this meeting, 22 invited lectures byeminent scientists were attended by 107 participants fromdifferent countries. The poster session consisted of 45presentations which, in addition to the main topics of themeeting, covered some of the various areas in statistical physicscurrently active in Iran. About half of the participants came fromcountries other than Iran, with a relatively broad geographic distribution.The meeting benefited greatly from the excellent administrativeassistance of the conference secretary Ms Ashraf Moosavi and theIASBS staff. We are grateful to Professor Yousef Sobouti, theDirector of IASBS, and Professor Reza Mansouri, the Head of thePhysical Society of Iran, for their support. We also thank theorganizers of STATPHYS22, Professor Rahul Pandit and hiscolleagues, for their suggestions and support. The conference wassupported by donations from the Center for International Researchand Collaboration (ISMO) and the Institute for Research andPlanning in Higher Education (IRPHE) of the Iranian Ministry ofScience, Research and Technology, the Islamic Development Bank,the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP), the Tehran Cluster Office of the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), theResearch and Development Directorate of the National Iranian OilCompany, the Physical Society of Iran, the Iranian MeteorologicalOrganization, and the Zanjan City Water and Waste Water Company.Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Instituteof Physics Publishing, and in particular to Professor AlexeiKornyshev and Dr Richard Palmer for suggesting publishing theproceedings of the meeting and carrying through the editorialprocesses with the utmost efficiency.